Monday, August 23, 2010

A History of Black people in Europe

It is generally known that black people have been residing in European countries since the early colonial times. But even before the 15th century and during Roman times, a time when colour of skin still wasn’t a racist stigma but just another physical feature, black people lived in Europe. Remains of a man with black African features were found in England recently, dating his life back to the 13th century. Read this article for more info.

Besides that, facts have been found of black people living in different parts of Europe, although I don’t want to overstate their presence or influence. But it is generally known that during the Muslim era of the Iberian Peninsula (from the 8th century AD until the 15th century AD) people with dark skin were part of daily live. The Muslims who invaded Spain and Portugal around 700 AD were a mixture of black and dark people from North-Africa. They were often referred to as Maures, wrote about and painted, way before the dehumanization of black people started.

I added above Jan Mostaert's portrait of a nobleman, guest of the Queen of Austria. This painting dates back to the early 1500's in what we now call Belgium, then part of the Duchy of Brabant. There is no doubt this man has African roots while being a respected member of European culture. We can only guess that this man is of Maure origin, i.e. a Muslim having converted to Christianity or even the second or third generation of converts.

Below I will go deeper into the subject. I will give you some internet links, book references and a list of early Europeans of African descent, each time linked to their wiki page. If you know more about the subject I invite you to add information in a comment.Al Andalus

Many blacks who were Muslims converted to Christianity after the emirate of Al Andalus was abolished (end of 15th century). But the Reconquista took centuries (8th-15th century) and during those times black people gradually integrated the Christian and Northern European world. Among them were noble men and scholars. The negative image of blacks, as natural slaves, only gained prominence in the 18th century when the transatlantic slave trade became a central piece of European economical activity and later when European nation-states were being established.

Slavery and racism

Of course slavery existed before racism. In the 15th century blacks and whites were enslaved indiscriminately. Blacks in the America’s could become free men and own their own slaves and land (which was rather common in colonial Brazil for instance). It is only in later years that being black made you a slave forever and by birth, or at least a kind of human always inferior to white people. This racial perspective on identity and humanity only gained authority in later modern times. Read more on the subject here.

Coat of Arms

Black people were part of European imagination and reality from very early times. Read more here and here. We can say with certainty that there were black people in Europe before that white people reached the area south of the Sahara. North Africa, Iberia and the Middle East were the crossroad where black and white intermingled. In Europe references to blacks was a positive sign of strength and military power. Still today you can find many blacks in coat of arms for towns all over Europe, central, south and north, dating back to the middle ages.

Some Literature

After the 15th century, Portugal entered an intense relationship with African kingdoms in the Gulf of Guinea and the Congo coasts. Slave trade (although not based on race) and exchange between the kings led to the presence of Europeans on the West- and Central African shores, just as Africans in Portugal. Accounts from those days tell us that the sight of black people in the streets of Lisbon wasn’t a rarity during the Middle Ages, more on the contrary. I want to refer to following books for those who want to know more about this topic: Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, Thomas Foster Earle,K. J. P. Lowe(eds.)Africa's discovery of Europe, David Northrup

As a consequence of the slave trade free blacks also arrived in Europe between the 16th and 19th century. Blacks lived in London, Liverpool, Lisbon, Seville, … during the 17th and 18th century. Other historical books with scientific authority give you in depth knowledge of this:Hugh Thomas’s ‘The Slave Trade’Ivan Van Sertima’s ‘African Presence in Early Europe’All this publications teach us something about this hidden part of European history.

Leo Africanus

Leo Africanus is often stated as one of these black and European noble men and scholars. But it is rather speculation to state if he was black or white. He was definitely a Maure but as racism, whiteness and blackness were unknown concepts as we know it today, we can’t know his ‘race’ for sure. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Even very common socio-cultural concepts of today such as ‘French’, ‘German’ or ‘English’ didn’t exist in those days such that it would be silly to argue whether historical figures of those days were German or French. Same thing is valid for the white and black race as defined today.

Famous Europeans with African ancestry (1500-1900)

Below I will list some of the most famous figures of European modern history (after 1500) who happened to be black or have African ancestry, but were integral parts of European (high) society. Most of the time the African ancestry of these people is ignored by history books although acknowledged and accepted by most history scholars. I think it throws a new light on the concepts of race and the meaning of blackness in the 21st century.

It’s time to drop astern the shape
of the dull shores of my disfavour,
and there, beneath your noonday sky,
my Africa, where waves break high,
to mourn for Russia’s gloomy savour,
land where I learned to love and weep,
land where my heart is buried deep. "

Blacks need to research history to liberate themselves. They have to find out what was stolen from them and claim it back, in order to strengthen their identity. Who are we, where do we come from, what is our history, where did it go wrong, when and why? That eurocentrist will hijack Black History, as the British sites about historical blacks indicate, will just not do. Since I have started my research there been historical blacks ‘discovered.’ A grand total of five. At this rate it will last forever. What do we care about one ‘black’ woman in a British Roman cemetery? And black by who’s definition? We know there were Blacks in the Greek and Roman world and they shared equal status with whites.

Blackness is more a question of identity then head shape or DNA There are those with a Irish or Jewish identity, which has nothing to do with the length or shape of their noses, but their ideas, ideals, problems, geographical movements, politics, solidarities etc.

Snowden in Blacks in Antiquity (1971)has proven that there was no racism as we know it today in antiquity, but rather 20th century American researchers imposing their racist views on the ‘colour-blind’ Greeks and the Romans. The Greeks were aware that Egypt was the source of their civilisation. And they did not have rules against race-mixing. They understood black skin only as an adaptation to environment. And they looked up to Africans, as blameless. Africans were the favourites of the Olympian gods, who would spend 11 days each year to feast with the Africans. The war god Mars was represented as a black man.

What was stolen from them? Please, do do your research. The European trade in black slaves in nearly all records, both African, European and other starts with Africans capturing and enslaving their own people to be sold to first two, then four separate continents.

Tomamo, There are differences between the peoples who moved into the land now commonly referred to as Africa. Our differences is clearly stated in Scripture. Additionally some were lied to by the white slave traders and others cohersed. However it due to the sins of our ancestors as stated in Scripture. However things shall change and for that I praise YaH. HalaluYaH.

"The Greeks were aware that Egypt was the source of their civilisation. "Wrong. Egypt was not the source of the Greek civilisation.

Greece had over the years many populations migrating there, for example from the middle east and Mesopotamia to the islands, and from European mainland to the Greek mainland, each bringing along technologies and culture of their own, who helped shape the ancient Greek civilization . Egypt had a little to do with it, as they were mainly trade partners with Greece.About their Gods, Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt had different sets of Gods. Their interaction together as people however led to a few worshiping both sets gods , or legends of interactions of the Gods of Egypt and Greece.

Another popular misconception : Egyptians were not black. They were Mediterranean people, and the average Egyptian was about the same colour as the rest of the Mediterranean , albeit a bit darker.Were there black Egyptians? Yes. Even a line of Pharaos was black according to DNA haplogroups tests. But they were not all black, and the average Egyptian was not black.

"BUT THEY WAS IN AFRIKA AN SHIET"Doesn't matter. If you want to see what colour the native population probably was a lot of time ago, all you have to do is get an accurate globe, and see what colour are the people in the same latitude.

Another popular misconception among Afrocentrists: Cleopatra wasn't black. She was Greek, from the bloodline of Ptolemy. They were stationed as the rulers of Egypt at the time.What does being in the bloodline of Ptolemy mean? Lots of incest to "preserve the bloodline" . So no chance of her being black whatsoever.

Mars (Ares) is not depicted as black. He was generally depicted as a soldier from each region.

i'm sorry but i don't agree with you on Egypt not being the source of Greeks civilization. Africans have always been on the move since time immemorial. The first human being to exist on earth was found in Africa precisely Tanzania according to science and similar bone types have been found around that area.homo Erectus , homo habilis and homo sapien all are believed to have first existed in Africa. even Biblical accounts also shows that yes indeed Africans are the pioneers of civilization. JUST READ ABOUT NIMROD!IT isn't wrong to learn from the elders. when you accept the fact that all humans are Africans , you wouldn't find it DIFFICULT TO ACCEPT that Greeks did learn from their older siblings in Africa just.

Middle East is an illusion! that side is northeast AFRICA.

ARE YOU AWARE ZEUS was taken from Africa to Europe? same thing can be said about/of Europa.

The political issues surrounding Cleopatra have no bearing at all to us living today. Declaring Cleopatra black, according to the definitions of eurocentrism, is of no use to blacks living today, dealing with the racism today. Race Theory and Racism is a liberation ideology starting in 1760, to free Europe from a reversed apartheid system, when the nobility and royally was black identified. They intermarried because blue blood was black blood. Anyone who was not white was considered superior to whites. They were a fixed mulatto race from very fair to very black, some looking more African, Asian or white. But they shared a black identity: blue blood. The whites then were not the whites we know today. They were born in a system ruled by blacks and coloureds; they knew nothing else. If anyone questioned this system he was despotically silenced. This also explains the ferocity of the French Revolution which ended the Ancien Regime, which was black rule.

Now I understand that blacks are frightened away from Jane Austen (1775-1817) because of all the blond actresses playing personages, who in fact are clearly described as very brown and black. Austen writes about things that still influence us today, the causes and the aftermath of the end of black rule in Europe. In Emma (1816) she points to the dangers of race-mixing and blacks trying to civilize whites and raising them to equal status. These are the causes of the downfall of blacks, their own folly. She was writing about historical realities, not wishful thinking. Emma is not a straight romantic story; it’s an allegory, its Black History and confirms my blue blood is black blood (1500-1789) research.

On builds on the research of the ones who came before. There is no need for young blacks to go and rediscover the wheel time and time again. And we do not need whites to explain to us who is black and who is white. We are not that stupid! The sources are just the novels by Jane Austen who wrote for and about the 3 and 4 black families in an English country village, who were a gentle or noble elite. Towards self-improvement and to warn blacks about the dangers ahead. Austen teaches us the use of correct language, good manners, prudence, relations, culture, reading of good books and women rights. She shows how blacks have many colours or looks, invites us to look at blacks in all their diversity. She urges blacks not to be afraid to change or they might be loosing even more.

The author of this post is trying to highlight black people from /real/ history. Although your ideas are incredibly amusing, we aren't here to talk about conspiracy theories. Instead of reinventing famous white authors, why not concentrate on the very real black authors who are overlooked?

It´s always nice when people inform themselves about history in order to find an identity for their troubled heart as a minority member. But please dont just go and invent things that are complete bullshit. Like mentioned below by some other commentators, some people in your list about famous black people are heavily mixed and almost completely white like Pushkin. Egypt is not a sub saharan black african country and never was. At least not in the last 10000 years! And the part about european aristocracy being light to sometimes even heavily black coloured is just ridiculous! I dont remember having ever seen any portrait of black coloured nobility or other famous people in european history aside from the people in your list. You can`t build yourself a fake identity on things that never happened! The developement of modern science, technology, art and philosophy just happened to start in Europe. Thats why Europeans enslaved the world for a couple of centuries. But that time is almost over too! Asia and Africa will develope into wonderful, highly technologised places to live. And they most definitely will become places of new developements.

By the way, Chevalier de Saint-George`s music ranks somewhere between beautiful, awesome and terrific :)

...TO BOTH ANONYMOUS'.....what a load of rubbish ! ....l don't even understand your motive in comming onto this great web resource directed at people that are interested in the truth about African people in Europe...there are plenty of white supremist webpages that are happy to have your misinformed opinions posted on their sites, but l am sure that no one here cares to hear your misinformed, uneducated..."opinions". My only hope is that African (black people) pa no mind to your supremist ranting based on pure jealousy. I do not have the time nor do i care to address your comments fully as its a waste of my good energy and time. but l will say this. One....ALL races of people came from Africa....and esp Europeans came from one African women in East Africa about 120,000 years ago. 2... The first human being was African.3.... The first civilisation and oldest were African...The kingdom of Kush Derek a Welsby. 932.01 Welsb

"At the time when Rome was a small village on the banks of the Tiber and the Greek city states held sway over minuscule territories, the Kushites ruled an empire stretching from the central Sudan to the borders of Palestine. the Kingdom of Kush outlived the Greek city states and the Period of Macedonian hegemony over vast tracts of the ancient world, and co-existed with the rise, heyday and much of the period of decline of the Roman Empire.". Pg 9

4.....The ancient Greeks and Romans took credit for all the African sciences, Gods and knowledge.... This was even confirmed by the early Greek writers who visted Africa..once Greece actually started 5,000 years after Kush the African kingdom.

5. The Egyptians came from the source of the Nile (Uganda)6.Stop wasting peoples time with your lies and nonsense.7. African people / black people know your history, so you dont fall into the trap of believeing such nonsense and refer to African scholars who will tell you the whole story, not just what they "think" or care to tell you. ...e.g Dr Ben Yocef Jochannan & Shomarka Omar Yahya Keita M.D., DPhil to start.

I know l said l would not waste time addressing your opinions, but there is one thing l need to make clear.

EUROPEAN PEOPLE ARE THE MINORITY....people of colour are the majority. .Europe and America are also the second world....Africa is the the first world......The world map ..as it was originally drawn is not to scale and is a fabrication of someones mind who wanted to believe America and Europe were bigger than Africa....but they just arent.. .....sorry to burst your bubble.

Oh and by the way Chevalier de Saint-George' music actually ranks between "should have been hailed as great as Mozart" ..if it weren't for the racist fearful people at the time....not just awesome, terriffic and beautiful......but some of the greatest music one could ever hear !

I take issue with Juliette Rouff's statements that she won't address posts from whom she determines to be white supremacists. It would give me a lot more respect toward her if she refuted the claims instead of getting upset and stating her washing of her hands of these sorts of people, yet contradict her statement by going off on a miniature rant at them, then write again and again at them when she realizes her upset emotions aren't satiated while still claiming to have no time or patience to do such. Clearly her actions do not reflect her words.

I am merely here to look up reference for my fantasy novel and it is incredibly frustrating to me that I can't find what I am looking for, or it contradicts other places that I have gone to for research.

It fascinates me that racism as we know it as today might be a relatively recent construct developed within the last few hundred years, and is being snuffed out just as quickly. However, as a skeptic I am not going to take this knowledge as fact until I have referenced more websites and personal biases from both sides only hinder my quest for the truth. It is hard enough to look for the information I seek without contradicting statements.

Truly the internet is a great and wonderful source of information. It's a shame that it is polluted with the garbage we have to sift through. Also, it is a shame that sourcing isn't as prevalent for casual (or not so) commentators who give an info dump that may or may not be total malarkey.

interesting to observe how modern social trends followed by politics influence interpretation of history and even modern scientific researches - just as in previous centuries, but in opposite direction. in order to get objective picture (which surely is a rarity) one should be unprejudiced and throw away both pro-racist and anti-racist trends. anyways thanks for efforts and the info. interesting to read

A few notes: The coat of arms could very likely be a non-African families coat of arms. Many European families liked to have black people on there coat of arms, maybe because they owned land in Africa, thought it was interesting, etc.Second, a few people on your list are mixed. It would be nice if you could actually clarify that.Also, "swordsman" is spelled "swordsman" not "swardsmen."Thank you.

Heraldic Moors in western art are symbols of blue blood, and black superiority. The nobility and bourgeoisie 1100-1848 was brown and black of complexion and described and depicted as such. From 1848 when the whites, who were the serfs were emancipated they had all portraits amended. You can still see the brown faces underneath. This should be the final phase: Blacks need to challenge the veracity of all old master portraits and so we can all have proof.A source is Alison McQueen The rise of the cult of Rembrandt in 19th century France (2003). However as white peoples racist, revisionist research goes, she failed to mention that the high point of this cult was whitening the portraits. Those civilized and smiling people at our museums are deceiving us with fake, over paints, and they know this. If we challenge the portraits racism may end in 2013.

A LOY OF IMAGES THAT PROOF MY BLUE BLOOD IS BLACK BLOOD THEORY ONE FINDS IN BOOKS, AND THEY NEED TO BE UPLOADED.

Blacks need to get to work if they want to be liberated in 2013 by flooding the web with images like these.

Some images of King Henry VII Tudor. He was described as a sallow, meaning of light brown complexion. All of history is about brown and black complexioned persons. Those with classical African facial traits were considered ‘pure’ of blood, and proof of nobility.

Anna Karenina was based on a Black woman: Marya Pushkina, daughter of Alexander Pushkin. She was a Black woman. Notice how black her maternal grandmother Natalya Goncharova looks (sketch by Pushkin). So Marya’s mother was very dark complexioned too, like her husband. Pushkin’s father was dark of skin. Also note how Alexander Pushkin as an fourth generation African still looked very black of complexion, with strong classical African facial traits. There are other fake death masks on the web, this ones shows his African looks. Ibrahim Hannibal and his kin did not marry whites, who were the lowly serfs they owned.

I appreciate your post above, but Alexander Pushkin was not black. His grand father, Abram Petrovich Gannibal was. His grand father married a white Swedish woman and they in turn had multo kids (half casts / half black - half white) and would be Alexander Pushkin's mum, but the chances of them finding other black people and marrying them is quite small, I think they diluted the blackness if you will.

Quote from wikipedia:

Abram Gannibal and Christina Regina Siöberg had ten children, including a son, Osip. Osip in turn would have a daughter, Nadezhda, the mother of Aleksandr Pushkin.

Just because a person has a white complexion does not make him or her white or Caucasian. African people range in complexion from black to white. That has been he error made by man historians and writers who have assumed that Eygypt was white because the Africans there had light complexions. Many studies have been done with regards to this and the strong conclusion is The Eygyptian people were African. You also have to understand that the white or caucasian gene is a recessive gene and the black a dominant gene so even if generations have passed a persons dna and makeup may still be dominately African. That is part of why whites in Europe started to have a problem with their African neighbours, they held a dominant gene. African people are the only people in the world that can have both black and white children . That is an African male with an African female. So would you then call the white "looking" child white....no. Ref: The bio cultural origins of Kemet by Dr Keita. Who makes it clear the Eygyptians were African even though they looked white.

Shomarka Omar Yahya Keita M.D., DPhil., is an American physician and anthropologist. He is affiliated with the National Human Genome Center of Howard University and the Department of Anthropology of the Smithsonian Institution

I read the books of J.A.Rogers to learn of the Blacks in Europe. In spite of what Ms.Lincoln said the great Afro-Russian poet Pushkin is Black and not ashamed to say it. I even read a group of Black professors went to the Russian embassey in Washington D.C. to celebrate the 200th Aniversary of his birth. I read that in the major Black weekly Jet magazine. So no matter what a White person said that this Black person is "White" has a bias.

Subjugation of blacks began with the Eugenics movement (an offshoot of early evolutionary thought) that postulated that blacks were "more apelike" than whites. This came to it's ultimate conclusion with Hitler's "Aryan Race". Prior to Darwin (and his cousin Francis Galton), blacks were considered equal.

I'm sorry to burst your bubble for the person who said Alexander Pushkin was not black. I don't what planet you came from, but Alexander Pushkin was a black man and did not appear to have an ounce of white in him, although he may have had a white ancestor. There were many black royals and nobles of Europe that most Americans know nothing about. Like Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Edgar II, many of the Plantegnets, The Pict Dynasty of Scotland, George III, Francis of France, Ivan V of Russia, if I'm saying his name correctly; Gannible the Terrible of Russia and so many others. There is speculation Mary II, Queen Anne of Great Britain and Anne of Cleves were also of Black, Moorish, Maure, etc. descent.But what black person from Europe or the Americas does not have a white ancestor? Show me one that doesn't.

As for people who believe white people ruled the world for thousands of years, let me enlighten you. Rome cared nothing for white people. They were conquered and enslaved just like anyone else. In many parts of Europe, Rome was hated and despised.

Secondly white Americans never talk about their exodus out of Europe. What is their real reason for leaving? Was it to escape the oppression of their black oppressing royals and nobles? Hmmm? Where did white people learn to oppress and hate so well? It was obviously done to them.

Lastly, during the Holocaust and Hitler cleansing Europe making it become a white pure race continent, why were the royals and some of the nobles of Europe running like hell from Europe, if they were so white? Hitler was an expert at identifying races of man.

having traveled thru Germany, East and West, Poland, Russia, Spain, Holland, in the 70s and 80s I saw no "black" facial traits, I did meet some blacks in all the countries, but by then they were looked down upon. In south Russia there was evidence of oriental and Middle Eastern influence. But 99% of the people were white. I'm not disputing where the garden of Eden was, or where the human race originated, but as the human race moved north they became lighter skinned. An interesting article, and when I get time I will goggle each of the names mentioned and see what comes up.

Great data.In Portugal there is a lot of references of what we may understand as 'black people', which means today dark skin and in middle ages had another meaning and it was not related to skin colour, race or ethnicity issues, but yes to social condition.As well, at this corner, there's trace of a WIDE origin of nobles, knights, royalty and even state ministers. I'm pretty sure in another nations is the same thing.

By any strange energy...which is something I can not identify where comes from, there's a current that somehow seems to put people against one another. What I'm positive sure is, that the ones who promote that energy, they are being, against their own will, stupid.Anyway, even those folks who like to separate instead of unite, they're pretty welcomed when visiting this small garden.

Katrice, you are a real piece of work. Your basically stating the opposite of what he is. Alexander Pushkin was a white person who had a black great grandfather. That's a smaller percentage of African ancestry compared to how your describing him.

You also mention Henry VIII as a black royal. Not only does he look white, his parents and grandparents, look white as well. That's because they are white!

And the real reason white people left Europe because of black oppressors? Really?! Maybe its not talked about because those are nowhere near the real reasons.

All that aside, I think its great to learn about these iconic Europeans with African heritage on there side.

I really was hoping you would take us back even further in history. It's facinating! I'm researching head coverings mentioned in I Corinthians to the church in Corinth. A friend mentioned it may have been a cultural thing to the Africans who also lived in Greece during the Roman empire.